From extropians-request@extropy.org Tue Dec 7 01:44:16 1993 Return-Path: Received: from usc.edu by chaph.usc.edu (4.1/SMI-4.1+ucs-3.0) id AA02267; Tue, 7 Dec 93 01:44:12 PST Errors-To: Extropians-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu Received: from news.panix.com by usc.edu (4.1/SMI-3.0DEV3-USC+3.1) id AA00733; Tue, 7 Dec 93 01:44:06 PST Errors-To: Extropians-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu Received: by news.panix.com id AA01077 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for more@usc.edu); Tue, 7 Dec 1993 04:36:15 -0500 Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1993 04:36:15 -0500 Message-Id: <199312070936.AA01077@news.panix.com> To: Extropians@extropy.org From: Extropians@extropy.org Subject: Extropians Digest X-Extropian-Date: December 7, 373 P.N.O. [09:35:41 UTC] Reply-To: extropians@extropy.org Errors-To: Extropians-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu Status: RO Extropians Digest Tue, 7 Dec 93 Volume 93 : Issue 340 Today's Topics: Brave New Extropia? No Thanks. [1 msgs] Digichecks! [1 msgs] Tech: reprints about Intenet and Cable TV [1 msgs] Administrivia: No admin msg. Approximate Size: 51353 bytes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 6 Dec 93 18:15:42 -0800 From: freeman@maspar.com (Jay R. Freeman) Subject: Brave New Extropia? No Thanks. Tim May and Nancy Lebovitz converse, and Tim says: > ...the libertarian focus [has] proven for > many years to be anathema to most American women. Does anyone have any information or speculation as to why that might be so? -- Jay Freeman ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Dec 93 17:59:00 PST From: lovejoy@alc.com Subject: Digichecks! > Someone-who-didn't-sign-themselves said: > > > The problem with "digital cash" is that it isn't cash in the way the > > word is used by most people, and they don't really know what the > > digital part means. > > I agree. Perhaps it should rename itself "digicheck" (US) or > "digicheque" (UK). So-called digicash has more analogies with checks > than cash. Digicash and checks both require banks to issue and back > them up. Both require validation so that (if working offline) > recepients have to wait for the money to clear. Unlike cash, which is > instant and local. > > Mike Price price@price.demon.co.uk Actually, it also resembles charge cards, debit cards and ATM cards more than it does cash. Names are important--especially in marketing. I have some suggestions: ( Secure- | Safe- | Priva- ) ( Checks | Charge ) --alan (lovejoy@alc.com) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1993 21:18:46 -0500 (EST) From: Harry Shapiro Subject: Tech: reprints about Intenet and Cable TV The following text is presented for personal educational use only. It is not to be copied or otherwise used in a manner which violates rights of its copyright holders. This letter serves only as private communication to readers of the Extropian Mailing List. _________________________________________________________________ Copyright 1993 Warren Publishing, Inc. Communications Daily December 2, 1993, Thursday SECTION: Vol. 13, No. 231; Pg. 1 LENGTH: 1632 words HEADLINE: New Communications Services; 5 BIG MSOs FORM JOINT VENTURE TO COMPETE WITH TELCOS DATELINE: ANAHEIM BODY: Five of largest cable MSOs formed joint venture to create metropolitan areawide communications networks to compete directly with telcos, they said at Western Cable Show here Wed. Group said project is needed to match "brand" presence of telcos and to create seamless network of PCS, video telephony, data and other advanced services. At same time, Time Warner (TW) joined other MSOs as part owner of cable-owned competitive access firm Teleport Communications Group (TTG). Owners of new joint venture at start will be same as for TTG -- TCI, Time Warner, Continental, Comcast, Cox -- but venture also will recruit other MSOs, they said. "It's absolutely necessary that there be participation by a wide range of cable operators," said TCI Senior Vp Robert Thomson. Venture will be organized on 3 levels, with ownership of each different: (1) Nationwide umbrella organization that would provide support services for local joint ventures. (2) "Line-of-business" joint ventures for each type of service. For example, slightly different group of MSOs than those participating in umbrella could own PCS national venture. Each line-of-business venture would create national brand, conduct technology development and R&D, handle regulatory issues, interface with standard-setting bodies, work on issues of connecting local PCS networks to national network. (3) Local ventures that would include virtually every cable system in a particular ADI, for example. Local ventures would interconnect each system, allowing all new communications services to be transmitted among local cablers and from them to national network. Cox Senior Vp David Ravenel said "lion's share" of economic value of overall venture would be in local ventures. True competition to telcos in new services probably won't ever develop without such joint venture, Thomson said. He cited example of Chicago, where 12 MSOs serve area handled by single telco. Telco could easily create metropolitan area PCS brand name and seamless network, he said, but "for cable to mount a competitive challenge to a single telephone company, there will be a necessity for cooperation, joint ventures and networking." Thomson said many of details of venture haven't been worked out, but predicted definitive agreement would be signed in 1994 first quarter. Joint venture inevitably will raise some competitiveness issues, since some of MSO participants have business relationships with telcos that project is being set up to compete with. Participants also acknowledged that federal agencies are likely to raise antitrust issues, although they believe problems won't be significant. Venture will insulate telcos from participation within their telephone service areas, companies said. For example, Bell Atlantic, which has deal to buy TCI, could own share of national umbrella organization, but couldn't participate in local ventures within its service area, they said. Same is true for U S West, which owns parts of Time Warner. As result, members of venture will be partners in some parts of country but competitors in others, said Time Warner Cable Ventures Pres. Glenn Britt. Venture will encourage individual cable operators to accelerate spending for new bidirectional broadband networks, Continental Exec. Vp William Schleyer said: "This business structure is the vehicle for all cable operators to have interconnections with each system in a market. It greatly reduces the risk." Time Warner Cable Chmn. Joseph Collins said venture is "not simply a way to speed the availability of competitive access telephone service, but as a vehicle to help lead the cable industry into offering advanced services, like video telephony, over sophisticated communications systems." In TTG deal, Time Warner will get 16.67% ownership, leaving other partners with: Cox, 25.05%; TCI, 24.95%; Time Warner, Comcast and Continental each 16.67%. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Britt said TW did deal because "we believe the competitive local access business holds great promise." Western Show Notebook . . . General Instrument (GI) and Intel announced Wed. they would conduct field test next year to evaluate offering of high-speed access over cable networks to on-line services. Viacom and Comcast will be involved, and America Online (AOL) and Prodigy will be services tested. Intel Vp Avram Miller emphasized that no product was being announced, only "joint technical development experiment." GI officials said cable would offer data speeds 10 times those offered over telephone wires, and would close "communications speed gap" that developed as computers acquired ability to process information more quickly, but were handicapped by speeds in telephone network. Cable customer would be able to plug cable service into board in back of personal computer to acquire access to higher data speeds. Demonstration of Prodigy service operating at higher speeds showed remarkable improvement, even over current 9600 bps offering. Faster data speeds offered through cable would be another means of diversifying on-line service offerings, with potential to offer regular telephone-based service, data over cable and service to TV set over cable. Each would have different capabilities and entail different developments. Prodigy Exec. Vp Scott Kurnit said his company does some of that now, offering different data streams, depending on which Prodigy software is used. AOL Vp Audrey Weil said games and home shopping, now not big part of her service to computer users, might be bigger part of cable version. CompuServe is latest to join cable world, scheduling announcement of trial for its text-based system. --- Cable equipment maker C-Cor is predicting record sales this year and even better next year, Chmn. Richard Perry said. Equipment sales are driven by resurgent economics of industry, plus demand for new technology, he said: "This is absolutely the most exciting, dynamic business that you could be in." Program Notes: American Movie Classics said it will delay launch of Romance Classics network until late 1994, in response to survey of cable operators. Network was to launch Feb. 14 (Valentine's Day), but Senior Vp Kate McEnroe said survey showed that 73% of cable systems would be more receptive to new channels in late 1994, vs. 27% now. Survey also found that 14% of systems would add 3 or more channels in early 1994, vs. 27% in early 1995. About 46% plan to add channels in early 1994, but most are retransmission consent-related, survey showed . . . E! Entertainment said it's adding one million new subscribers (to total 26 million) through agreements with Cablevision Systems, KBLCom, Monmouth Cablevision, TCI. --- CableLabs and Cal. Cable TV Assn. unveiled CableNET 93 exhibition at show Wed. In exhibit, 24 companies are demonstrating various services that could be carried by interactive fiber cable system. Most applications have been suggested or available for some time -- main new factor is that all are interconnected for first time via prototype broadband asynchronous transfer mode switches and digital video servers. Among applications is Prodigy Multimedia Access, which uses cable's higher data rate capability to move data at 500 Kbps. --- EMI Communications is negotiating agreements for pilot projects to be launched early next year in which cable operators will give subscribers cost-effective computer access to information networks via cable, Vp Gil Korta said. EMI said it expects to offer system nationwide by early 1995. System will allow cable subscribers to connect directly with Internet. Company said Adelphia system in Syracuse is expected to be among first test markets. --- America Online Inc. said it will deliver its services via cable and develop new ones for interactive TV. It said it will participate in Viacom's Castro Valley, Cal., testbed beginning in early 1994 and with General Instrument and Intel to develop next-generation set-top boxes. --- Northern Telecom demonstrated prototype of 40-Gbps broadband switch for use with cable networks. Broadband Multimedia Vp William Connor said scaled-down 10-Gbps version will be available in mid-1994, with 40- Gbps in 1996, and eventually 80-Gbps. He said Magellan Concorde switch, compatible with asynchronous transfer mode, is low-cost, low- risk method for cable operators to enter broadband, interactive, multimedia market. Company also demonstrated for first time product concept for providing PCS over coaxial cable. --- MOR Music TV said it will form 6 new music video channels, in addition to basic service already operational. New formats are Aerobic Music, Classic Country, Classic Rock, Concert Music, Gospel Music, Spanish Music. All 6 will be offered as tier or a la carte and will be carried on Galaxy 5 satellite, CEO Ronald Harris said. --- Graff Pay-Per-View will launch 2nd adult pay-per-view channel, Spice 2, beginning Feb. 2. In addition to cable market, Spice 2 will be available to satellite dish market. --- National Access TV network will begin test transmissions in Jan., with full schedule in Feb., Pres. Jeffrey Younger said. Network will carry public access, opinion, home video, shopping, other programming. Those wanting access will pay $300 per half-hour to reach national and international satellite dish market and eventually cable systems, Younger said. Programming will be carried on GTE ASC 1 satellite. --- Digital Equipment Corp. and Times Mirror Cable said they will cooperate with Ariz. State U. to develop broadband interactive network connecting large manufacturers to suppliers and subcontractors. Network test is to begin in Phoenix this month using existing cable systems, with additional participants to be connected early next year. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH Copyright 1993 Network World, Inc. Network World November 22, 1993 SECTION: FEATURES; 9th Annual User Excellence Awards; Pg. 50 LENGTH: 203 words HEADLINE: Unique nets contend for awards BODY: Of the scores of entries Network World readers submitted for the Ninth Annual User Excellence Awards, sevs international electronic mail and high-quality local-area network-based facsimile servers to produce the animation for its popular Captain Planet'' cartoon series. When the Los Angeles riots erupt- ed in May 1992 after verdicts were rendered in the Rodney King/Los Angeles Police Department case, networked students at the California State University at Long Beach used IBM's TeamFocus groupware package to discuss the events and blue-sky about how similar incidents could be avoided in the future. The Shrewsbury Public School System in Shrewsbury, Mass., tapped a town-owned cable television provider and used its wide-area network to link AppleTalk Ethernets running in the school district's seven sites, resulting in substantial cost savings and improved services. The Philadelphia-based Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) this past July unveiled its homegrown Gopher service for the Internet. The Gopher service keeps all SIAM's newsletters, tables of contents, book reviews of the latest mathematics publications and industry journals, and job postings on-line. LOAD-DATE-MDC: November 26, 1993 Copyright 1992 McGraw-Hill, Inc. LAN Times October 4, 1993 SECTION: INTERNETWORKING; Vol. 10, Issue 20; Pg. 54 LENGTH: 271 words HEADLINE: New Zenith WAN Interface Module Links X.25 Networks BYLINE: By Dan Frankel, Special to LAN Times BODY: Zenith Communication Products recently introduced a WAN module that supports connection to X.25 networks. The new module provides up to seven X.25 virtual circuits for Zenith's Galaxy Exchange 5.04 router, which further enhances the applications Galaxy Exchange can support. This is of particular interest to European countries, which implement X.25 on a large scale. However, according to Tim Frahm, Zenith products manager, the new module (model LANBRG-M-X) is also useful to many domestic network managers because X.25 is "growing in acceptance" in the United States. The X.25 interface module lists for $ 3,000 and is available for delivery within 30 days after ordering it. According to Edward Zylka, Zenith marketing director, orders are running right on schedule. With the Galaxy Exchange, users can connect heterogeneous IEEE 802.5/Token-Ring Networks and IEEE 802.3/ Ethernet networks together in a single platform over WAN broadband cable-TV systems at distances up to 30 miles in diameter. Support is also available for a variety of WAN applications, including data compression at speeds up to 64Kbps. Combinations of up to six network interface modules can be used to operate in the Galaxy Exchange. "This allows for seamless connectivity for multiple networks that run a number of protocols in both local and remote applications," said Zylka. The Galaxy Exchange is ordered as a base unit, with the desired LAN/WAN interface modules ordered according to network requirements. The base unit lists for $ 5,995. For more information, call Glenview, Ill.-based Zenith at (708) 391-8181. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE-MDC: October 22, 1993 Copyright 1993 McGraw-Hill, Inc. Data Communications October, 1993 SECTION: LIPPIS ON INTERNETWORKING; Vol. 22, No. 14; Pg. 29 LENGTH: 1195 words HEADLINE: The Cable Connection to Data Services BYLINE: Nick Lippis, Contributing Editor; Nick Lippis is president of Strategic Networks Consulting Inc. (Rockland, Mass.), a consultancy that specializes in enterprise networks and publishes The Internetwork Advisor, a monthly analysis of internetworking implementation issues. He can be reached via MCI Mail at DATACOMM. HIGHLIGHT: US West could use its Time Warner alliance to circumvent regulations prohibiting RBOCs from offering national services. BODY: The spate of recently announced alliances involving telephone companies, cable TV operators, entertainment conglomerates, and computer and video-game vendors has generated a lot of talk about possible ramifications for Joe and Jane Consumer. As exciting as the prospects of having 16 different home shopping channels or pay-per- view amateur lawn bowling may be, network managers could end up reaping the biggest windfall from these technology mergers. That's because the new partnerships promise to deliver data transmission services that cover greater geographic areas and that are faster, cheaper, and easier to use than anything the phone companies have been able to come up with on their own. Up to now, carriers have shown an incredible inability to make a dent in the burgeoning internetworking market. Maybe they're afraid that competitive services will cannibalize their existing data offerings. Or maybe they're concerned that innovation will break their age-old model of meting out huge bandwidth inventory at minuscule levels for outrageous prices. New partners may help the telcos develop a new mindset. ONLY BUSINESS The numbers involved in this meeting of the markets would make John D. Rockefeller (or Vito Corleone, for that matter) weep with envy. The U.S. markets for telephony ($ 250 billion), computers ($ 100 billion), cable TV ($ 25 billion), and home video games ($ 5 billion) account for 6.4 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product -- more than the entire economies of many nations. The most publicized cable/telco connection so far is the recent merger involving Time Warner Inc. (New York) and US West (Denver). The regional Bell operating company plunked down $ 2.5 billion for 25.5 percent of Time Warner Entertainment, a cable operation that has some 7.1 million subscribers throughout the U.S. The new partners say they will pony up about $ 5 billion to revamp their respective network infrastructures to handle a suite of new interactive network services that will bring video, telephony, and computer networking together. For US West, the merger with Time Warner Entertainment offers the chance to extend the carrier's data services beyond its current boundaries. For instance, US West could set up points of presence or central offices on the boundaries of its local access and transport areas (LATAs), and then connect those to Time Warner's fiber optic networks for access and transport to areas that US West currently doesn't serve. This slick maneuver may enable US West to circumvent current regulations prohibiting RBOCs from offering national services, since US West wouldn't actually be handling any switching outside its regional jurisdiction. With a setup like this, US West could offer frame relay, SMDS, and transparent LAN services on a nationwide scale. This would give the carrier a way to beat back challenges from independent providers of data transmission services, such as MFS Telecom Inc. (Oak Brook Terrace, Ill.). FRIENDS AND FAMILY The US West/Time Warner deal may be just the beginning of an extended phase of can-you-top-this mergers and acquisitions. Tele- Communications Inc. (TCI, Denver), the nation's largest cable TV operator, is spending $ 2 billion to replace its copper-based networks with fiber optic cabling. The operator says fiber will enable it to offer users 500 channels of programming, interactive services such as video game channels, and personal communications networks. But TCI undoubtedly is looking beyond TV services to leverage its networks; the industry rumor mill has TCI, with its 10 million customers, linking up with AT&T and its 80 million users in an infrastructure mega-alliance. If AT&T doesn't hook up with TCI, chances are it will find a willing partner in Comcast Corp. (Philadelphia), the third largest cable TV provider (behind TCI and Time Warner) and fifth largest cellular telephone carrier. Depending on who's doing the whispering, Com-cast is about to strike a partnership either with AT&T or MCI Communi-cations Corp. (Washington, D.C.). Deal-making isn't limited to the biggest fish in the pond. Another new alliance with unmistakable implications for data networking involves cable TV operator Continental Cablevision (Boston) and PSI Inc. (Herndon Va.), which runs a wide-area TCP/IP network. The partners promise a service that will let PC users link to the Internet or to PSI's commercial IP service via a cable TV hookup. The service, which will cost from $ 70 to $ 100 per month, will provide a welcome alternative to modems and the analog telephone network for telecommuters and remote networkers. Equipment vendors are getting into the act by creating products that allow cable TV operators to provide data services. LANcity Corp. (Andover, Mass.) and Digital Equipment Corp. (Maynard, Mass.) have developed a bridge that provides 10-Mbit/s Ethernet connectivity over a cable TV network. Computer vendors also are joining with cable companies and software houses to build new cable converter boxes that offer the power of a PC and the ease of use of operating environments like Microsoft Windows. At least four different converter box projects are in the works, involving names like AT&T, General Instrument Corp., Intel Corp., Matsushita Ltd., Microsoft Corp., Motorola Inc., Scientific- Atlanta Inc., and Time Warner, among others. FASTER CERTAINTIES Although the exact ways in which all these alliances will affect corporate networks are unclear at this point, one thing seems certain: Networks will get faster, possibly offering hundreds of times more bandwidth for data links than is possible today through the telephone switching system. Enterprise networks are likely to grow as high-speed services reach out to smaller offices. Through the fiber networks of their cable TV allies, carriers will be able to upgrade to asynchronous transfer mode networking in relatively short order. Several cable TV operators already are using ATM switches in their interactive TV pilot projects. Time Warner has such a pilot running in Orlando, Fla. In Long Island, N.Y., Continental Cablevision is getting early experience with ATM wide-area service through a pilot network it is running with ATM switch maker Fore Systems Inc. (Pittsburgh). The service connects researchers at several universities in the area. The cable TV industry may actually become the largest consumer of ATM and internetworking products -- as well as the biggest provider of cell-relay services -- as operators build their next-generation interactive networks. The National Cable Television Association -- the lobbying group that has helped make cable reregulation so interesting -- estimates that the cable industry will spend some $ 18 billion on equipment over the next 10 years, with the bulk of that spending devoted to infrastructure upgrades. As all of these mergers and changes occur, the mainstream press is likely to focus on impacts to consumer markets. But after all the dust from all this activity settles, managers of corporate networks may reap some quiet technology benefits, especially regarding high-speed internetworking. GRAPHIC: Photograph, Nick Lippis LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE-MDC: November 10, 1993 Copyright 1993 CMP Publications, Inc. InformationWeek September 27, 1993 SECTION: IW 500 -- MEDIA; Pg. 110 LENGTH: 720 words HEADLINE: TV VERSION 2.0 -- Publishing, cable TV, and traditional broadcasting are converging into one IT-driven medium BYLINE: Mike Fillon BODY: When Turner Broadcasting recently went looking for a CIO, it recruited an executive from Pacific Bell, just one of a number of recent signals that the long-ballyhooed convergence of communications, computers, and entertainment may be at hand. Just look at the flurry of announcements this year: U S West has invested $2.5 billion for a 25% stake in cable-TV giant Time Warner Entertainment. Nearly $1 billion of that is earmarked to revamp Time Warner's cable empire with fiber optics, and U S West will share its expertise in digital switching technology to produce broadband interactive services. Bell Atlantic got the green light to provide several hundred channels of video programming within its territory. The other regional Bell companies also have an eye on cable TV. Meanwhile, Tele-Communications Inc. of Denver, the largest U.S. cable company, is investing $2 billion in a fiber- optic upgrade. Digital Equipment Corp. is talking with major cable-TV companies about offering Ethernet connectivity services that would allow computers to communicate across 70 miles of existing cable television wiring. And Microsoft, Tele-Communications, and Time Warner are planning Cablesoft, a venture that would develop video-on- demand, "telemedicine," and corporate learning channels. The major broadcast networks have also joined the fray; Capital Cities/ABC, for example, is teaming up with Discovery Communications Inc. in an eight-city pilot program to allow viewers to order replays of local cable programming at any time for six days after the original broadcast. Print media companies are also going electronic. "Newsprint is expensive stuff, while computer storage is cheap," explains David Easterly, president of privately held Cox Newspapers. Cox, like virtually every other publishing company in America, is cutting deals to make information available through on-line services. Does this mean that nearly every form of entertainment and information is now floating in cyberspace, ready to be downloaded at any time? Not quite. "These new capabilities are probably much further away than the people making announcements would wish," says Dennis McAlpine, an analyst with Josephthal, Lyon & Ross in New York. Turner's new CIO, Elahe Hessamfar, argues that companies are simply readying themselves to play on a field where boundaries between telecom, cable, entertainment, publishing, broadcasting, and computers blur. "I don't think anyone can sit here and build systems or define what the final outcome will be," she notes. "It will take time. I believe there will be a lot of losers; many people are trying the same things." You know it's a fast-moving industry when ideas are declared stale before they've even been brought to market. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE-MDC: September 29, 1993 Copyright 1993 Network World, Inc. Network World August 30, 1993 SECTION: TOP NEWS; Pg. 4 LENGTH: 480 words HEADLINE: Line between telecom and CATV begins to blur; First Internet services over cable TV connection. BYLINE: Ellen Messmer BODY: San Francisco Continental Cablevision, Inc. and commercial Internet provider Performance Systems International, Inc. (PSI) last week announced plans to offer Internet access services via cable television links. In the first joint venture of its kind, the two companies plan to connect their networks and employ CATV facilities to provide Internet access at Ethernet speed. The Internet service will initially be offered throughout the eastern part of Massachusetts early next year. Pricing for the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol-based service will not be announced until closer to the time of the service rollout, so it is hard to estimate how big an audience the companies may find for IP TV.'' While customers will be able to access the service by simply outfitting their personal computers with Ethernet adapters, both PSI and Continental Cablevision will have to upgrade their networks to bring it on-line, according to Martin Schoffstall, PSI vice president and chief technical officer. David Fellows, senior vice president of engineering and technology at Continental Cablevision, said the company will deploy a 100M bit/sec network to link the headend facilities at its CATV operations in 16 states. PSI will collocate switching facilities at the headends, which are used to plug satellite-distributed video signals into local cable grids for the Internet/CATV link. Of the approximately 550 MHz of bandwidth available on Continental Cablevision CATV networks, 6 MHz will be set aside to carry a 10M bit/sec Ethernet channel to homes and businesses. NEW ERA The partnership may signal a seismic shift in the telecommunications landscape, shaking traditional carriers. None of the telecommunications providers, local or long-distance, have a significant influence on the Internet market today,'' Schoffstall said. They have no marketable visionjust their real or perceived fears.'' The Cable-Telcom Act prohibits cross-ownership of CATV and telephone facilities in the same market, although that restriction has started to crumble (see story, page 4). Fellows said lawyers at his company believe the law applies only to voice services, not data. Continental Cablevision may elect to market the Internet CATV access separately without requiring customers to buy CATV programming. We could choose not to require that and just run an Ethernet link to the house,'' Fellows said. This is the first time a cable TV company has announced Internet access,'' Fellows said. But we're certainly not going to be the last.'' The agreement between PSI and Continental Cablevision is sufficiently open to allow other CATV companies to begin offering Internet data services, said William Scrader, president and chief executive of PSI. He said he expects PSI to make similar announcements with other CATV operators in the future. GRAPHIC: Photo LANGUAGE: ENGLISH LOAD-DATE-MDC: September 7, 1993 Copyright 1993 Network World, Inc. Network World July 12, 1993 SECTION: INTERNATIONAL NETWORKS; Pg. 23 LENGTH: 758 words HEADLINE: User to carry data over its cable TV net BYLINE: By Bill Burch BODY: The company that brought you Gilligan's Island, monster truck pulls and CNN's Peter Arnett live from Baghdad now wants to carry your LAN traffic, too. Data over cable is here, beginning with a New York company that is now carrying Ethernet traffic over its cable television network. Using equipment from Digital Equipment Corp., Cablevision Systems Corp. of Woodbury, N.Y., is ferrying files for users in Long Island and Yonkers, N.Y. And across the country, cable companies are installing fiber rings for advanced networks that will one day provide nationwide data services. Even though Cablevision Systems is not yet marketing the data services some of its coaxial networks can carry, the company is close to signing its first couple customers for local-area network interconnection, according to Wilt Hildenbrand, Cablevision's vice president of technology. With Yonkers and Long Island under its belt, Cablevision Systems now has its sights set on rolling out a LAN connection service in New York City within two years. With its network, the company is able to offer users a full 10M bit/sec channel vs. the 1.5M bit/sec limit of the T-1 lines offered by traditional telephone companies. Cablevision's alternative access division has been using fiber to provide long-distance bypass and high-speed data lines in New York City, and some of that traffic may be shifted to coaxial, if the business case warrants it. For its new data services, the company has had to consider such issues as traffic patterns in deciding whether to go with fiber or coaxial. "If the usage was such that having access to a number of locations on the coaxial network was advantageous, then, yes, there would be a big price advantage over having to build dedicated networks down to a lot of locations," Hildenbrand said. For users, the data service can substantially extend the reach of a LAN. DEC's "Digital Channel" technology can provide a 10M bit/sec Ethernet channel over 70 miles, as compared to Ethernet's normal limitation of 2.2 miles. Along with Cablevision, such companies as Times Mirror Cable in Irvine, Calif., and Greater Media Cable in Worcester, Mass., will be using the DEC equipment to carve off a piece of the LAN interconnection market. That may or may not please competitive access providers (CAP), but DEC prefers to see the CAPs as a potential client through cable company- CAP alliances. DEC's David Rosi, the company's director of video and interactive services, points out such alliances are already happening. For example, Teleport Communications Group is owned by Comcast, Continental Cablevision, Cox Enterprises and Tele-Communications, Inc. -- all cable companies. "[CAPs] clearly have the lion's share of connections to the business community," Rosi said. But when it comes to offering data services in the future, the companies will be picking either Fiber Distributed Data Interface over fiber or DEC's Channelworks and Ethernet over coaxial, Rosi predicted. Looking beyond Ethernet, cable companies have a grander vision of their place in the data universe. Ultimately, the companies would like to own a unified national network that can provide data services. Evidence of that vision can be found at Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. in Boulder, Colo., where work is proceeding on setting aside a chunk of the cable spectrum for data transmission. The laboratory is close to picking out a block of spectrum, according to Stephen Dukes, the lab's vice president of advanced network development. Once the block is picked, a draft proposal goes out for comment; the final choice will likely be made by the end of the year. That spectrum will support data services in two speed ranges. On the low end, the networks will carry data at 19.2K up to 1.5M bit/sec. High-speed traffic, such as Motion Picture Experts Group 2-encoded video, will run at 10M bit/sec. Eventually, cable companies will offer variable bit rate services, according to Dukes. For distribution, the new services will run on regional fiber rings, some of which are already in place. Regional rings now under development or in operation belong to Adelphia Communications in Vermont, Continental Cablevision, Inc. in Boston, Rogers Communications, Inc. in Canada, Tele-Communications in Englewood, Colo., Time Warner Cable in Orlando, Fla., and Viacom Cable in the San Francisco Bay area. Eventually, the regional rings will be interconnected to form a national network that could take advantage of cable's high bandwidth, Dukes said. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH Telecommunications Copyright 1993 Information Access Company Horizon House Publications Inc. 1993 July, 1993 SECTION: Vol. 27 ; No. 7 ; Pg. 11 LENGTH: 946 words HEADLINE: Digital enters CATV with Ethernet offerings; DEC, LANCity Corp. develop new cable television converter that acts as an Ethernet bridge BYLINE: Flanagan, Patrick BODY: MARLBORO, MA -- The existing cable TV (CATV) coaxial cable infrastructure is about to plug into Ethernet LANs. This move into the uncharted field of CATV/data applications represents a dramatic market shift for Digital Equipment Corp., which is reshaping its organization into six core competency areas. Digital and LANCity Corp. (Andover, MA) have come up with a new converter that serves as an Ethernet bridge, providing community-wide networking over existing cable TV coax with a range of up to 70 miles. "Until now, the CATV industry has been focused on entertainment for consumers, rather than providing an interactive highway to businesses and institutions," said Lynn Jones, business manager of what Digital is calling the Digital Channel. The Ethernet-cable TV bridge is known as ChannelWorks and was developed jointly by Digital and LANCity. To tap into a cable TV company's infrastructure, the ChannelWorks box (about the size of an ordinary cable converter) is connected to a standard cable TV outlet and the LAN Ethernet. Up to 83 cable frequency channels are accessible at the coax standard of 6-MHz bandwidth, which supports a 10-Mbps Ethernet with SNMP. Planned for shipment in the third quarter of 1993, the list price for a ChannelWorks box is $ 4995. In addition, users will pay to use Digital Channel, including a $ 24,000 connection fee for the first two subscribers, $ 6000 for each additional subscriber, and a monthly usage fee, set by the cable TV operator, estimated at about $ 500 a month. Included in the connection fee are Digital's testing and certification of the cable company infrastructure, with upgrading when required, customer support, and network management services. The local cable company charges will vary from area to area, but there are no plans to implement volume sensitive pricing at this time. Digital Channel will only support Ethernet, which Digital helped to develop. "Digital is the first to do this, but we're likely to see others get in the business," according to Stephen Dukes, vice president of advanced network development for Cable Television Laboratories Inc. (Denver). He believes that AT&T is a likely entrant, but could not predict when, and AT&T would not comment. The bandwidth of coaxial cable gives the Digital Channel a large advantage over telephone company copper wiring. "There's an increasing demand from people who work at home," according to Duke. Peter Kastner, an analyst at the Aberdeen Group, projects revenues of $ 100 million for the Digital Channel within three years. "This technology will do very well until someone gets to everyone's front door with fiber optic cable," he said. Rob Rich, director of public network services for Dataquest sees the Digital initiative as "a tremendous opportunity for cable companies. This is the first shot in the battle to win data traffic from voice carriers." What impresses Rich is the immediate availability of the cable TV infrastructure, the large Ethernet installed base that needs such a service, and the low cost, compared to T1. "There's a real comfort level with LAN-to-LAN communications for Ethernet users that fits well with Digital Channel," he observed. The big question in Rich's mind is whether or not cable companies can take advantage of the Digital Network. "There's not a lot of marketing savvy in the cable industry -- just look at how poorly pay-per-view programming has done." He also points out that marketing to corporations is new to cable operators and they have acquired a reputation for poor network reliability and customer service. Digital is expected to help offset some of these minuses. "They know how to sell the corporate customer, have a skilled, nationwide service force, and don't intend to permit the service to operate on cable systems that aren't certified," he said. Digital is moving slowly in introducing the Digital Channel. It has targeted 30 cities, but won't reveal which, that are felt to be "receptive" to offering the Digital Channel. A fully operational demonstration project is now underway in Digital's backyard of Worcester, MA, that connects the fire and police departments and half a dozen schools. By targeting municipal offices, educational institutions, and medical applications, Digital is "picking the long hanging fruit," according to Dataquest's Rich. He thinks that medical imaging is a "killer" application and that Digital knows this. Schools are another, since most already have cable TV connections for receiving educational and news programs. Care has been taken to minimize the technical bugs in the Digital Channel. Ed McGrath, director of engineering, points out that only one of up to 83 available channels on a cable network is needed to implement the service, and additional unused channels can be used if demand warrants it. "The Digital Channel behaves like a LAN and can carry as much traffic as you put on it within practical limits," he said. Bandwidth hungry applications, particularly videoconferencing, can be handled through bridging that selects a more direct route over the cable company infrastructure. Signal strength is maintained while traveling over coax by a proprietary protocol developed by Digital and LANCity. McGrath believes the signal boosting protocol is totally transparent to users. There are no security concerns as well, since this is handled at the user's hardware level. "You can't just tap in by hooking an Ethernet to any cable connection," he said. GRAPHIC: ;Photograph SUBJECT: Cable television, Equipment and supplies ; Computer industry, Product introduction ; Wide area networks, Equipment and supplies PRODUCT-NAME: DEC Channel Works (Bridge device), Product introduction COMPANY: Digital Equipment Corp., Product introduction ; LANCity Corp., Product introduction ; SIC: 3571 ; 3577 ; 3661 ; TICKER: DEC CO: DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORP; TS: DEC (NYSE); IND: 071 COMPUTERS; PC Week Copyright 1993 Information Access Company Ziff-Davis Publishing Company 1993 September 13, 1993 SECTION: Vol. 10 ; No. 36 ; Pg. 49 LENGTH: 470 words HEADLINE: Internet access to be offered via cable net; Continental Cablevision Inc. in Cambridge, MA to combine Internet with cable television BYLINE: Musich, Paula BODY: What do you get when you combine the services of the largest provider of commercial Internet access with those of one of the nation's largest cable companies? The result, the two partners hope, is a data service that will attract Internet users by offering much higher speeds than those currently available to most Internet us ers. This winter, Continental Cablevision Inc. subscribers in Cambridge, Mass., will be able to sample the service when Continental and Performance Systems International Inc. begin testing LAN-speed Internet access through Continental's broadband cable facilities ther e. The two companies announced late last month their intention to provide Continental cable TV subscribers with 10M-bps access to the Internet. "We're now going to [offer] data-communications services on the same network with entertainment and information services," said Kevin Casey, vice president of engineering for Continental's New England region offices, in Portsmouth, N.H. The LAN-speed Internet service is intended for home and business PC users who require high-speed Internet access for telecommuting, research, and other functions, said Martin Schoffstall, vice president and chief technical officer of PSI, in Herndon, Va. "It is for those information workers who have a compelling need for that service," Schoffstall said. "There are organizations that have specified that pieces of their organizations will not have offices -- those employees work only in their homes. There is a need for Internet access for that community," he added. Although other cable TV operators have begun experimenting with data services, the PSI and Continental agreement is unique in its simplicity, according to Jay Batson, an analyst with the network strategy research service of Forrester Research Inc., a market researcher in Cambridge, Mass. "This is the first viable way cable companies are going to get into the data business," said Batson. "It's viable because there is no massive digital swap-out," whereas other firms are switching from analog to digital transmission, he said. Continental Cablevision and PSI plan to roll out services early next year. The companies are working out the configuration details of the system and are evaluating third-party interface equipment for transporting data at Ethernet speeds across the broadba nd cable network. Supported workstations will include PCs, Sun Microsystems Inc. workstations, Apple Computer Inc. Macintoshes, and X Window System terminals, according to Schoffstall. Although pricing for the service has not been established, company officials expect it to range from $ 70 to $ 100 per month. "It will depend on what the hardware costs come in at," said Casey. SUBJECT: Cable television, Services ; Wide area networks, Services PRODUCT-NAME: Internet (Computer network), Services COMPANY: Continental Cablevision Inc., Services ; SIC: 4841 LOAD-DATE-MDC: September 28, 1993 CO: CONTINENTAL CABLEVISION INC; Copyright 1993 Warren Publishing, Inc. Communications Daily September 9, 1993, Thursday SECTION: Vol. 13, No. 174; Pg. 8 LENGTH: 595 words BODY: All 6 RBOCs -- along with Justice Dept. and GTE -- filed petitions and motions to intervene late Wed. in case involving Bell Atlantic's entry into cable in Alexandria, Va. (CD Aug 25 p1). Joint filing was seen as way to raise issue of extending U.S. Dist. Court decision to telco entry in entire country. GTE filed 2 separate petitions, one to extend impact nationwide and 2nd to at least assure that it applies to GTE systems in Va. Details of filings weren't available immediately. NCTA spokeswoman said Assn. didn't file Wed., but could decide later to appeal entire decision. TeleWest International -- consortium of TCI and U S West -- agreed to buy 6 U.K. cable franchises potentially passing 421,000 homes from Washington Post Co. for undisclosed price, subject to regulatory approval there. Systems in Cumbernauld, Dumbarton, Falkirk, Fife, Strathclyde and Tayside pass 92,000 homes, have 19,000 subscribers. TeleWest International Pres. Gary Bryson said systems in central Scotland "are a perfect complement to our cable TV and telephone operations in the United Kingdom," which already include Edinburgh. Besides new systems, TeleWest has 17 franchises potentially passing 3 million homes. Post COO Alan Spoon said company had been interested mainly in providing multichannel video, but "since our entry into the U.K., regulatory changes there have strongly encouraged cable companies to provide local telephone services as well. To construct both cable and telephone would require a very substantial increase in capital spending and we believe we have other opportunities that more closely match our investment criteria." Spoon said Post will focus on PCS. Alliance of Continental and Performance System International ( PSI) , first such venture that plans to provide high-speed multimedia service access to Internet via cable system (CD Aug 25 p8), is evaluating 12 vendors, one of which will be chosen to provide hardware linking computers to installed cable system. PSI Vp Martin Schoffstall said choice would be made in Dec. System will launch commercially in Jan., will be marketed as "InterCable," he said. Main piece of hardware is RF modem that will hook into co-ax, Schoffstall said. User's computer would connect to modem via Ethernet connection, but wouldn't require any other additional installation on users' part. PSI is looking beyond Continental deal, Schoffstall said: "We're close to announcing several other similar ventures in major cities across the U.S." PSI plans to have 2 tiers of service, business and residential. Network security problem has been solved, with system using "on the fly" data encryption, he said. One issue that hasn't been fully resolved by Continental is reliability, Schoffstall said. "Cable companies are used to supplying entertainment. If their network goes down for a day, well, their customers just rent a movie or go see one," he said. "But when people start depending on that same cable system to provide their data, essentially their livelihood in the case of business users, well, there's going to have to be much better understanding of how to provide some guarantees of service." Price for service in homes is to cost $75-$100 per month at start, but is expected to drop rapidly as economies of scale grow. Telcos are "way behind the power curve" on offering any type of competitive service, he said. "The problem is bandwidth, its distribution. And while the telcos are busy trying to figure out how to lay fiber just in the local loop, cable companies already have distribution to the home." LANGUAGE: ENGLISH ------------------------------ End of Extropians Digest V93 #340 *********************************